96 Anniversary Address. 



Sesia fusifonnis at Twizell, and he had procured a specimen of 

 Sirex gigas at Warenford." 



This ends the statement of our last year's Meetings ; and I 

 might here, with great propriety, have concluded my Address. 

 But I recollect, in order to remind the Club of the fact, that it 

 has now attained the completion of its twenty-first year, and has 

 become, if the analogy with human life is to be kept up, more 

 responsible to a wider public for its conduct. If my own at- 

 tainments had not been so scanty, I have no doubt I might have 

 seized this very appropriate opportunity to suggest some im- 

 provement both in its efforts and their objects. But, as it is, 

 any I can make would be wanting in utility as well as in author- 

 ity. As a humble learner, however, I may perhaps be allowed 

 to put the following queries : — 



Could not the communications on two distinct branches of 

 knowledge be so managed that each might aid and throw light 

 upon the other, and be shown to do so in the communications 

 themselves ? Are not geology and botany so related as to be 

 rendered useful in this way to each other ? I can conceive it 

 possible — if not at present, yet at a more advanced stage in these 

 studies— rthat on seeing a flower one may be able to tell not only 

 the quality of the soil it grows upon, but what all the strata 

 which intervene between it and the molten bowels of the earth 

 consist of; and from thence to deduce other and better, or the 

 best uses, social and economical, to which that portion of the sur- 

 face of the globe might be applied. 



Have we not been deficient in attention to the meteorology of 

 the district ? at least, since Mr. J. S. D. Selby left us ? And is 

 not this a matter of some consequence ? At least it holds a con- 

 spicuous place in our motto — " Mare et Tellus, et, quod tegit 

 omnia, Ccelum." 



Could we not usefully add statistics to our inquiries ? 



I congratulate you on the increased attention, by our Mem- 

 bers and correspondents, to the cairns, barrows, sepulchral re- 

 mains, and other antiquarian matters in the district. That kind 

 of research has acquired fresh value from some recent highly- 

 creditable attempts (by Dr. Daniel Wilson and others) to throw, 

 by this means, greater light upon the successive races who have 

 inhabited this island, and upon their varied habits and pursuits. 



